As telephone devices have become widespread, it is common for people to have multiple telephone numbers for reaching them, such as home, office, mobile, and fax. People who work in more than one location have even more numbers. Various companies have designed one-number solutions to allow a single telephone number to be used for all calls directed to a person, wherever they may be. These solutions are called “trunk-looping” one-number systems because they require the connection of multiple trunks within a single switching device. Two basic strategies are used to provide current one-number solutions.
The first approach is to provide a single “primary” number which is associated with an individual at a certain location and allow the subscriber to manually “forward” all calls to any other number, one number after another. Typically, the primary number is associated with a mobile telephone which is the default forwarding location unless the subscriber indicates otherwise. However, this method requires direct actions from the subscriber upon arrival to a physical location, normally by entering digit strings through the subscriber's mobile telephone or through a local non-mobile telephone. It is difficult to remember to place such a forwarding call; the digits to be entered are difficult to remember, and it is unrewarding to undertake the complicated effort of informing the system of your present location and then receive no calls so people do not bother unless they are expecting an important call.
The other approach to obtaining a single telephone number (identity within the telephone system) is based on a subscriber-defined schedule established by time-of-day and day-of-week. Subscribers route (“forward”) incoming calls based on their best guess at where they will be at a particular time. Call control logic directs the caller to the most likely physical location.
Both of these methods require the assignment of telephone numbers to each possible location. Although, in the present system, each usable telephone typically has an associated number, establishing many telephones and giving a number to each telephone is expensive, as each number typically incurs a minimum monthly charge. Also, because each call occupies four trunk lines, into and out of the subscriber's central office before reaching a central office for the local telephone, these approaches require a great deal of additional network capacity and are therefore very expensive for the telephone companies to implement.
An additional limitation of prior art trunk-looping one-number systems is the inability to use such systems when roaming. In the prior art, established schedules that redirect traffic to frequently visited locations become meaningless across multiple time zones. Manual forwarding to circuit-based numbers reduces reliability and trunk efficiencies for both the mobile carrier that provides the single number and for the long distance carrier. Service providers resist implementing either one due to perceived high infrastructure cost and/or financial risk due to delayed processing of charges incurred in non-owned networks when forwarded calls are received from other networks.
It would be desirable to be able to detect the presence or absence of a mobile telephone at a fixed location for the purpose of routing a call between the wireless network and a location based telephone on a packet switched network. A packet switched telephone can be less expensive and more private than a standard mobile telephone. Wireless telephone companies provide call delivery and origination using radio-based and circuit-switched-based signaling to an end-user device identified by a telephone number. Since a mobile telephone's identification number represents a single device, a subscriber must obtain additional telephone numbers to identify fixed locations such as office and home.
Also, the wiring for a general purpose packet switched network, the Internet, is now ubiquitous and additional IP (Internet Protocol) devices can be connected to this network with no additional cost for wiring. Because the wires are not used at their capacity, modest amounts of additional traffic can be placed on them with no additional cost for maintaining the Internet service. IP telephone devices that handle only a few calls at one time can be added in many places throughout the network without significant cost. If these devices are low power radio antennas, they can easily serve a few nearby wireless telephones. Because they are low power, they are inexpensive and create no local land-use opposition to placement. In contrast, traditional cell phone antennas are very expensive, are connected to their base stations with expensive dedicated wiring, and face considerable local land-use opposition to placement.
In the prior art, Internet access via a 28.8-, 33.6-, or 56-kbps modem is referred to as voiceband modem technology. Like voiceband modems, cable modems modulate and demodulate data signals. However, cable modems incorporate more functionality suitable for high-speed services. From a user perspective, a cable modem is capable of delivering up to 30 to 40 Mbps of data in one 6-MHz cable channel. This is approximately 500 times faster than a 56-kbps modem.
In cable modem systems, data from a user to the network is sent under control of a cable modem terminations system, which is a controller at the head end of the cable (CMTS). A subscriber can continue to receive cable television service while simultaneously receiving data on the cable to be delivered to a personal computer and sending data on the cable with the help of a splitter, which splits the signal to continue on in multiple cables.
Also in the prior art, there is the capability to send and receive data with dial-up telephone Internet services using the television as a display, such as Web-TV by Microsoft. However, it would be desirable, with subscriber interaction, a system to place or receive telephone calls utilizing a cable-television base application, IP telephones or ‘Bluetooth or 802.11’ devices, television displays using drop-down menus, and one-button remote-control inputs. Also, it would be advantageous to be able to detect the presence or absence of a mobile telephone near a device coupled to the global network via a cable-television type network connection for the purpose of routing a call between the wireless network or the public switched telephone network and a cable based IP (Internet Protocol) telephone connection utilizing the DOCSIS (Data Over Cable System Interface Specification) platform.